Rate The Last Movie You Saw

While I thought it was a bit uneven, that sequence with Collette and Ribisi is something else.

Im a big fan of Billy Eichner and I’m glad to hear his new movie is good. Looking forward to it.

By http://www.impawards.com/2017/death_wish_xlg.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54750441

Death Wish - (2018)

Uuuuuuggggggh. Okay. Lets cut straight to the chase. This movie isn't Death Wish, or a remake on any derivation of Death Wish. It's your stock standard revenge flick, and nothing else. When you make a film that's purporting to be either a remake of that film, or anything related to the novel, and then you don't turn your character into a deranged vigilante - well, I have serious doubts about your credibility. I'll go straight to the producer here, Roger Birnbaum. He produced the 2014 remake of Robocop, the 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven and the 2011 remake of Footloose. (Mike Myers' The Love Guru was one of his as well.) Truth be told, I was expecting something like this - and my curiosity got the better of me. This is the kind of movie where the wife of Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis) is killed, and his daughter is put into a coma, and he reacts by shedding a quiet tear and then pretty much he's okay - I've seen people react worse when their football team loses. All he really does is hunt down the people that did it and kill them, while in what's meant to be Death Wish Kersey starts murdering any and all criminals he can find, no matter how serious their crime. There's a lot of difference - but I guess the people making this wanted the same standard they always dish out - predictable, safe, boring, and a complete waste of time. The movie doesn't say anything any more. The whole point has been missed, and cut from the film. Eli Roth, is this all you are? A complete hack? I don't like you sir - not now.

3/10

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I think Willis is actually pretty good in the Eli Roth Death Wish. I think the problem with the movie is that Roth doesn't have a clear angle he wants to take with the material. Some scenes feel like a straight ahead execution of the genre, others feel like parody, none are executed with enough conviction to really land.

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Barbie as The Princess & the Pauper (William Lau, 2004)

Y'all thought Barbie season was on hold just because spooky month showed up? So did I for a minute there but we're back bb and this one's A MUSICAL . After seeing this its like, why were they making Barbie movies that weren't musicals? The songs were all lovely too . It pains me to say, since this doesn't have the charms that endear me to Barbie in the Nutcracker, but this is the best one and its wonderful. I was swept up in the drama and the romance and it was just beautiful! Even the animal romance was cute as hell. The one cat also naturally barks and acts like a dog and has a song sung to him about how he's loved just the way he is and idc I'm taking this as trans representation. The poor attempts at comedy are cut down substantially as well, probably because there is a lot more characters that have proper arcs in this one while still having a strict 80 minute time limit. There's simply less time for that shit this time around. By the end my heart was full and my eyes were leaking a bit. Also they did the fake outtakes thing during the credits which really took me back lol.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (John Irvin, 1979)

Knives Out (Rian Johnson, 2009)

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (Jay Roach, 1997)

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (Jay Roach, 1999)

Austin Powers in Goldmember (Jay Roach, 2002)

Lightyear (Angus MacLane, 2022)

Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2022)

Sleeping Beauty (Clyde Geronimi & 3 more, 1959) [rewatch]

The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953)

Nope (Jordan Peele, 2022)

The Gray Man (Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, 2022)

Elvis (Baz Luhrmann, 2022)

Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn, 2014)

Public Enemies (Michael Mann, 2009)

Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988)

À propos de Nice (Jean Vigo, Boris Kaufman, 1930)

David Lynch: The Art Life (Olivia Neergaard-Holm & 2 more)

Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas, 1996)

Blonde (Andrew Dominik, 2022)

Hocus Pocus (Kenny Ortega, 1993)

Hocus Pocus 2 (Anne Fletcher, 2022)

V for Vendetta (James McTeigue, 2005)

The Crow (Alex Proyas, 1994)

Clifford the Big Red Dog (Walt Becker, 2021)

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The Last Band on Stage | Official Trailer | Chicago Band Documentary

Chicago has played 55 years straight... The longest they ever went was 3 months. But they also show how they made their latest album.... remotely.

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https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition

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“We can destroy what we have written, but we cannot unwrite it.”

Released in 1951, The Thing from Another World follows a US Air Force crew sent to investigate an unusual aircraft crashing at the North Pole, and they end up finding an advanced but dangerous alien that feeds on other creature's blood. It's up to Captain Patrick Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) and his men to stop it.

This is one of those instances where it's good to know the context in which the film is released. Right at the peak of the Cold War, the presence of "the Thing" is meant to be seen as a metaphor of the threat of Communism sneaking up on us. Not sure if that was present in the novella, but it's very much in the film's DNA. From throwaway lines about the Russians being "all over the pole like flies" to the "ra-rah" closing warning to "keep watching the skies".

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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Feels Good Man (2020) 4/5
This is a highly entertaining and interesting documentary on the famous Pepe the Frog meme and how it went from being a happy-go-lucky cartoon character by a leftie San Franciscan artist to a hate-filled meme used by the alt-right. I highly reccommend this to anyone interested in our internet influenced culture.

Oh yeah, but aside from the stunt, that whole scene was pretty intense. The film had a good bunch of decent scares.

I went and saw Smile today. I have mixed feelings about this one. First, the positives. Sosie Bacon does a great job. The camerawork and score are all really good. The atmosphere is effectively creepy and suspenseful. However, there were some things I didn't like. Parts of the story elements didn't really work for me, there was one scene that I strongly disliked, and the ending wasn't completely satisfying. There are also too many unanswered questions. If you think about Smile too much, the implications of the films become quite disturbing. I'm not sure what the film was trying to say and I don't think I like what it appeared to be saying. Even with those issues that I had with the film, Smile is technically a (mostly) well made horror film boosted by a star making performance from Sosie Bacon. Just a heads up to those considering seeing this that there are some dark and heavy themes that are a core part of the film, including trauma, mental illness, and suicide. If you feel you can handle those and are okay with unanswered questions, you might end up enjoying Smile.

Alice Guy-Blaché attended one of the first "surprise" film screenings from the Lumière brothers back in 1895, she started making films the next year for Léon Gaumont, was named Head of Production where she was one of the first, if not the first to explore with fictional storytelling as well as many other innovative film techniques... and still, most people – from regular audiences and cinephiles to actual filmmakers and scholars – don't know who she is. The fact that she was a woman either makes that fact more surprising, or sadly, more understandable.

Be Natural, from Pamela B. Green tries to correct that by chronicling Guy-Blaché's career, from 1895 to her death, and beyond. One of the things the documentary highlights is why so many people had/have never heard of her. The truth is that most of Guy-Blaché's work and contributions to film ended up being either dismissed, erased, or attributed to others. Maybe it was just a thing of time and place, but maybe it was ego or the nature of a male-driven society. Fortunately, Green does a great job of bringing it to the surface.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

Yup, great scene all the way around. Also the older scientist dedication to the seedlings was ominous and the sound they made was unnerving. One of my fav 50s sci fi films.

A couple of old short films from Alice Guy-Blaché I saw in preparation for an interview for my podcast on female directors.

The Red House - This is a 1947 noirish psychological horror tale with a touch of the supernatural to it. It's directed by Delmer Daves and stars Edward G. Robinson as Pete Morgan. He and his sister Ellen (Dame Judith Anderson), along with their adopted child Meg (Allene Roberts), live on the outskirts of a farming community surrounded by a sprawling property. Part of this property is the Oxhead woods. When Pete hires Nath Storm (Lon McCallister), one of Meg's classmates, to help around the farm he is adamant that the young man should avoid straying into the woods on his way home.

The two kids take Pete's dire warnings as a challenge of sorts especially when Nath get bashed over the head by an unknown assailant during one of his "shortcuts" home. I think most viewers will be able to figure out Pete's motivations early on. It doesn't end up mattering though since his secret is divulged not long after you've sussed it out. The screenplay, Daves direction and Robinson's solid performance nevertheless serve to draw you in. The rest of the cast including Julie London as Nath's spoiled and jealous girlfriend Tibby and Rory Calhoun as a local thug named Teller contribute significantly to the action. Robinson was money in the bank and I have yet to see a subpar performance from the man.

80/100

Words that no spouse wants to hear while their far away. The threat of danger to their family and the inability to do something has to be unbearable. That is the premise of this 1913 short film directed by Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley.

Suspense starts with a servant leaving a letter of notice to her bosses, leaving the mother and her baby alone. When the husband has to stay late at work, a vagrant takes advantage to sneak into the house and threaten the woman.

This is an impressive short for many reasons. First, the technical aspects and craft are great, especially for the time. There are numerous creative shots using mirrors and downward angles, and most notably, the split screen seen above. All of those were shots I really wasn't expecting in a 1913 film. Also, the car chase sequence between the police and the husband is neatly choreographed.

But finally, the way the short manages to build tension through the close-ups on the "tramp", and the back and forth editing between him, the mother, and the father was impressive. I really didn't expect being so on edge. A definitive must-watch, especially if you're a fan of early silent cinema.

Grade:

Danish winner of the best foreign language Oscar, and a blind watch for me. One family is struggling through tragedy and one family is struggling with possible divorce. A boy from each meet in school, become friends, and more drama occurs. This is a simple, sad, and well made film that kept me engrossed the whole time.